Join us as we celebrate 5th year of Greater Triangle Area Dragon Boat Festival

Each year approximate 10,000 visitors come to the Greater Triangle Area Dragon Boat Festival to experience our near 100 exhibits and activities such as cultural display, games, health screenings and stage performances besides participating in dragon boat races. We also feature a wide collection of ethic foods and delicacies, where the brave and adventurous can sample unique street food by local chefs. We provide the opportunity for you to interact with this growing community and the opportunity for you to expand your business.

PRICES:

AGES 13 & OLDER $5.00 IN ADVANCE / $8.00 ON EVENT DAY
SENIORS: $4.00 IN ADVANCE / $7.00 ON EVENT DAY
Kids 12 & under are free, all other ages must have a ticket.

Event Program, September 22, 2018

In addition to a full slate of dragon boat races, this celebration of Asian culture includes dozens of live stage performances, games for kids, global street food vendors, cultural and health information booths, and more. We, Asian Focus together with Town of Cary and Pam Am, are honored to bring this festival to our community right here in Cary, NC. Besides hours of family fun in a beautiful setting by Symphony Lake, we are excited to have businesses and people of our diverse community come together to promote and enhance our growing community.

Venue & Parking

Dragon Boat History

Dragon Boat Racing

Dragon boating simply put, is a boat of 20 paddlers, a drummer and a steers person, paddling to cross the finish faster than their competitors. The paddlers paddle in unison to a drummer's beat in a long, narrow boat decorated at bow and stern with a dragon's head and tail. It's a team sport in its purest form that encompasses the elements of power, speed, synchronization and endurance.

Often referred to as the “ultimate team sport’, dragon boat racing is the world’s fastest growing water sport. With annual events held in over 60 countries and spaning across all 7 continents, dragon boat racing attracts hundreds of thousands of participants and millions of spectators worldwide.The appeal of dragon boating is partly due to the sport’s ability to accommodate a wide spectrum of skill levels ranging from novice to competitive.

At the novice and recreational level, teams often form as a means of social outlet, team building and an alternative means of exercise. It has become extermely popular as a corporate team building activity.

Origin of Dragon Boat Racing

Dragon boat racing is said to have originated over 2,500 years ago life-sustaining on rivers in the valleys of southern central China as a fertility rite to ensure plentiful crops. The time of year these races occurred was traditionally associated with disease and death. The race was held to avert misfortune and encourage the rains needed for prosperity—and the object of their worship was the dragon.

Dragon boat racing as the basis for annual water rituals and festival celebrations, and for the traditional veneration of the Chinese zodiac water deity: the dragon, has been practiced continuously since this period. It is said to rule the rivers and seas and dominate the clouds and rains. The celebration is an important part of ancient agricultural Chinese society, celebrating the summer rice planting. Dragon boat racing was historically situated in the Chinese sub-continent's southern-central "rice bowl": where there were rice paddies, so were there dragon boats.

The first races were meant to mock dragon battles staged in order to awaken the hibernating Heavenly Dragon. Sacrifices were made to the dragon sorcerers. Humans, the cleverest and most powerful of all beings, were the original sacrifices. Even much later, a rower—or even an entire team—that fell into the water would receive no assistance because it was believed to be wrong to interfere with the will of the gods.

History of Dragon Boat Festival

Duanwu Jie

The Dragon Boat Festival is known in Chinese as Duanwu Jie. The festival title Duanwu Jie translates to the Double Fifth Festival which is derived from being celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese calender (the lunar calender), commonly known as the Summer Solstice. The alternative Chinese name is Longchuan Jie which literally translates to the Dragon Boat Festival. It is also a national holiday in China.

Why the Dragon?

In Chinese culture, the sun, like the Chinese dragon, traditionally represents masculine energy, whereas the moon, like the phoenix, traditionally represents feminine energy. The summer solstice is considered the annual peak of male energy while the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, represents the annual peak of feminine energy. The masculine image of the dragon was thus naturally associated with Duanwu Jie, thus came about the dragon in the Dragon Boat Festival.

Origin of the Festival

The festival started over 2,300 years ago in southern Mainland China during the Zhou Dynasty. Although there are countless stories about the origin of this holiday, the most popular legend, by far, is that of Qu Yuan - a Confucian sage revered in China for his great works in poetry.

The story starts with Qu Yuan attempting to drown himself in the Miluo River. The villagers carried their dumplings and boats to the middle of the river and desperately tried to save Qu Yuan, but they were too late to do so. However, in order to keep fish and evil spirits away from his body, they beat drums and splashed the water with their paddles, and they also threw rice into the water both as a food offering to Qu Yuan's spirit and also to distract the fish away from his body. However, the legend continues, that late one night, the spirit of Qu Yuan appeared before his friends and told them that he died because he had taken himself under the river. Then, he asked his friends to wrap their rice into three-cornered silk packages to ward off the dragon.

These packages became a traditional food known as zongzi, although the lumps of rice are now wrapped in leaves instead of silk. The act of racing to search for his body in boats gradually became the cultural tradition of dragon boat racing, held on the anniversary of his death every year. Today, people still eat zongzi and participate in dragon boat races to commemorate Qu Yuan's sacrifice.

Dragon Boat Race Results, September 22, 2018

Let\'s have a big round of applause for all race teams, Congratulations!